


The Last Carnival

by silver_drip



Series: Spiraling 'verse [8]
Category: Captain America - All Media Types, Iron Man - All Media Types, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, Thor - All Media Types
Genre: Nuclear Weapons, Stark Industries, Tesseract, WWII, War, aesir!tony
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-13
Updated: 2015-04-13
Packaged: 2018-03-22 16:39:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,204
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3736057
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silver_drip/pseuds/silver_drip
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony Howardson's time before and during WWII.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Last Carnival

**Author's Note:**

> Thank ya, Temul, for your constant support!
> 
> Note: This makes a lot more sense if you've read 2000 Light Years From Home first.

Evidentially there had been a war recently on Midgard. Tony was a bit put out that he had missed it.

He liked wars. They were good for business and produced the type of chaos he thrived on. War also led to innovation. What the humans lacked in magic they made up for in gadgets.

That was probably one of the reasons he didn’t really like humans, other than their ridiculously short lifespans. Their love of gadgets and mechanisms reminded him far too much of his father.

Luckily, Tony was well versed in shoving away emotions that didn’t work to his advantage.

He was sipping scotch while walking around a convention with a false face and dull eyes. A man that reminded him of a mouse fell into his path. Tony introduced himself, using his father’s name out of boredom. The other man, Abraham Erskine, was smart, but had an undercurrent of fear about him. When Tony pressed him for answers, Abraham admitted that he thought another war was already on the horizon.

Tony gave him false comfort before they parted.

Perhaps he could start up a weapons business here and see where it took him.

 

 

* * *

He could smell the tension in the air. Unfortunately, a bit of upheaval in Svartalfheim had kept him away from Midgard for half a decade. Europe was on the brink of war, but the other side of the world seemed to want no part of it, still weary from the last war. There was also the best kind of worker there, the individual who was desperate for money and willing to do nearly anything just to get by.

Tony spent a few months assessing the level of technology in the realm before starting up his business in the US. Tony paused while doing the paperwork on what he would call his company. He closed his eyes in thought. Obviously he couldn’t use his own name. The weapons industry would forever be associated with his mother in his mind, but her name was far too pleasant on the ears to set the tone he wanted his company to have.

Goddess of the Stars… but stars were bright and beautiful, like her, on her good days.

On her bad days… Stark Industries. It was perfect. What better name for a weapons manufacturing company in a realm that was on the brink of a worldwide war?

 

 

* * *

 

The money he invested was paltry compared to his actual wealth, but it was the perfect amount for such an infantile realm. They may be nearly on par if not slightly above the dwarves’ level of technology, but they were still too childish to understand how to really use it.

His company grew along with his power base in Midgard.

The US still hadn’t entered the war, not that Tony really minded. Supplying the allies was raking in enough money as was. Unfortunately, having such short lived creatures as workers meant a quick turnover rate. He decided to take on a human partner in order for him to keep up with his businesses in the other realms. Obadiah Stane was a shrewd enough businessman and clearly a remorseless human. He would suffice until Tony could find someone who could be both shrewd and put on a good face for the company.

Being from another realm did have its perks. He introduced metals that couldn’t be found naturally in Midgard, giving him an even bigger edge over the competition. It also bred enemies. Almost a year to the day that he started Stark Industries, assassins from the other side of the realm tried to kill him. It was pathetic and predictable, but he allowed himself to be wounded in order to maintain the illusion of humanity.

Soon after he was invited to join the Strategic Scientific Reserve. There he met Erskine again who had the lovely idea of using chemicals in order to enhance humans’ inherent strength to almost godlike proportions. Such bioengineering was outside of his field of knowledge, but he decided to encourage the mortal in his endeavor.

The US entered the Second World War. Tony was ambivalent. On one hand that meant his business would pick up, but on the other it ran the threat of his factories and investments being damaged.

Perhaps he did like war, but not when it was on his doorstep. He particularly found the attack on Hawaii offensive because his home in Malibu was just a stone’s throw away. He was very tempted to flood the US military with weaponry that were far above the other countries’ but knew that it would only give them an edge for a short time. Opposing countries were always quick to dissect new and better technologies before employing them.

He moved his headquarters to the middle of the country since it seemed like the safest place to be. It also made visiting the Strategic Scientific Reserve in New York much easier.

And then one day while traveling between the two locations Tony felt something so heartbreakingly familiar that he fell to his knees and wept.

It took him a good hour to pull himself together. If she was still alive…

He had to be certain so Tony searched for the familiar explosion of power using every resource he had. He soon found out about the Manhattan Project and was devastated all over again. It was foolish of him to think that his mother could possibly still be alive. She had plunged into the Void, and there was no coming back from that.

Instead of mourning her loss for a second time, he joined the Manhattan Project while still working in tandem with Strategic Scientific Reserve and Erskine. He gave Stane most of the control over Stark Industries and the human didn’t disappoint. 

The Manhattan Project… it was like reliving his childhood, when he still had a childhood. The constant fluctuating of energy that he thought only his mother capable of making…

It was always in the forefront of his mind as they tried to control such power that his mother once readily wielded. Even when he made the Vita-Rays and Erskine finally completed his Super Soldier Serum… all Tony could concentrate on was the Manhattan Project.

Reports of strange new weapons being used by the Axis couldn’t even hold his attention. Some of his businesses in the other realms began to suffer, but Tony just couldn’t bring himself to care.

He continued to play his part as a human, attending the appropriate military functions, making speeches, occasionally flying over enemy lines for a friend. Yet every day always boiled down to the Manhattan Project.

And then came the moment they were to test their shiny new bomb in New Mexico. He was the only one prepared for the blinding splendor of it all. A flash of light that reached from one horizon to the next. A cloud of destruction blossomed delightfully. Scorched earth turned into delicate glass.

It felt like home and finality. He hadn’t even realized he was still hoping his mother was out there, alive and laughing brightly… but now he accepted it. She was gone, but her powers lived on in the humans and her spirit thrived in his own.


End file.
